Jenny McCarthy Is A Newspaper Columnist

Perhaps you've heard about Chicago's newest high-profile newspaper blogger/columnist, who will be writing about parenting, dating, and "family issues." A psychology expert? Perhaps someone with expertise in family counseling?

Nope. In this case, the newest addition is a sometime actress-slash-model whose degree, to quote the columnist herself, came straight from Google U. It's Jenny McCarthy, and if you've got an interest in autism, public health, or critical thinking, that very name might have you wringing your hands--or slugging a nearby wall.

McCarthy has become a prominent voice for those who believe, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary, that vaccines cause autism. More than that, however, she has promoted an anti-science view of autism in which her "mommy instinct" trumps any scientific finding. In 2007, a day after the appearance of her book Louder than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism, she was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show. According to Seth Mnookin, who wrote about this in his book The Panic Virus, McCarthy told Winfrey she got her "degree" in autism from "the University of Google."

McCarthy has no expertise in autism, Google U notwithstanding, and no credentials in science. She remains on the board of directors of Generation Rescue, an organization devoted to the debunked notion that vaccines cause autism and that autistic people can be "recovered" from their autism by way of various unproven and sometimes dangerous interventions, including chelation. I'm baffled that the Sun-Times would give someone with this public record of ignoring evidence in favor of indigo children a voice as a columnist.

As Raeburn wrote at the Knight Science Journalism Tracker:

McCarthy is entitled to her opinion and her mommy instinct, but she's not entitled to the validation and amplification that come with a job as a daily blogger for the Sun-Times.

A track record demonstrating expertise should matter for a public voice. I'd never expect someone to hire me to, say, write about acting or dating Jim Carrey. But the fact that Jenny McCarthy has no credentials to go on Larry King and toss an obscenity at three pediatricians in her best effort at scientific counterpoint didn't stop her from doing exactly that. And her nonexistent journalism experience and poor record on evidence-based discourse hasn't stopped the Chicago Sun-Times from handing her what USA Today's Maria Puente called "a megaphone." Given McCarthy's assiduous campaign to confound one of the most successful public health initiatives in human history, I'd like to advise that the megaphone be put in a permanent timeout ... or handed over to someone with the credentials to use it.